Pence serves up more warmed over 'ed reform' with no plan to pay for them

December 10, 2013

Today Governor Mike Pence detailed his 2014 education legislative agenda in Corydon. In his remarks, Governor Pence introduced his “2014 Roadmap” as an agenda that “will move from education reform to education innovation”.

While we’re in complete support of innovation in public education, there is absolutely no innovation in Pence’s simplistic “Education Roadmap”. His 2014 education agenda is just the same old, warmed up proposals from the Daniels’-Bennett corporate education reform plans.

Pence claims that he wants to ensure that all children in Indiana are learning. However, his “roadmap” (with its obvious favoritism toward corporate charter schools) provides no plans for mandatory full-day kindergarten or universal pre-K.

After proposing a $1 billion business tax cut that will devastate Indiana’s already cash strapped public schools, he offers no plans to pay for any of his education plans.

Pence’s plan completely ignores the complexities of placing and keeping good teachers in high-poverty schools. Research is clear that providing financial incentives to teachers just isn’t enough. It’s clear that teachers are attracted to and stay in schools where they receive support from school leaders and colleagues and receive adequate resources to do their jobs.

“Instead of going to Washington and meeting with ALEC and its corporate sponsors to develop his education plan, why doesn’t the governor sit down and talk with Hoosier educators and parents to hear their ideas?” asks Teresa Meredith, ISTA president. “Schools where educators collaborate and focus on improving teaching and learning, and have the adequate resources to do so, are the real “roadmap” for improving education for all children.”